Fun quiz night, 5 December 2011
On a cold, cold winter evening we gathered in the warmth of the
Portwell Angel Pub in Faringdon Market Place for a fun quiz to
raise money for Root & Branch. There was a great turnout of 30
people that included service users, volunteers, staff and
trustees, along with friends of Root & Branch and other local
people. The taxing questions ranged from "British towns"
to "Sports". We all struggled with identifying song
lyrics but this was because Gary, our quizmaster, declined to sing
the lyrics despite popular request. It was a stiff competition won
by the team that called themselves "Giddy Kippers" ...
actually R&B Trustees and Manager but we didn't cheat!
They donated their winning to Root & Branch.
As well as being a fun way to spend a cold winter's night, we
generated £70 (& 23 wooden spoons!) for Root & Branch.
Many thanks to Gary for organising the event. We must also
thank the Portwell Angel for donating a further £25.
Faringdon Market Place in the snow. (Picture courtesy of the Portwell Angel).
It wasn't snowing on the quiz night but it was cold.
Root & Branch = Thoroughly
I was struggling with one or two last words in the Guardian
quick crossword today - well, I'm not clever enough to do their
cryptic crossword. 14 Across was still eluding me even
though I had got every alternate letter in the words. The
clue was, "Thoroughly, 4,3,6". Then it hit me;
"ROOT AND BRANCH". How could I miss it? But
I liked the Idea the we must do things thoroughly at Root &
Branch.
Guardian crossword Saturday19 November
The Defence Academy supports Root &
Branch
Root & Branch were pleased to receive a cheque for £1500
from the Defence Academy Shrivenham. Every year, the Academy holds
a Music and Fireworks event to raise money for nominated local and
military charities. This year, Root & Branch and another
charity, Pennyhooks, were the nominated local charities. Both
charities were presented with their cheques by the Academy
Director General, Peter Watkins, at an event on 26 September. The
picture shows the Director General (left) presenting a facsimile
of the cheque to Faith Mitchell and Dave Butterworth of Root &
Branch.
Re-forging the forge
Evidently, the traditional floor for a forge is made from clay
mixed with bulls blood. Well, our old forge floor was not
much better but, thanks to the funding from Adam Twine, our
patron, and the work of volunteers and service users, we now have
a solid floor.
At the same time, the forge was refurbished with a new front
wall and door. We took the opportunity to relocate the furnace to
give better access when a number of people were working together.
We also created a separate area for welding activities.
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Our refurbished forge |
A service user working in the forge -
phew, it's hot work |
For some time, our forge activities have been led by an
experienced blacksmith Roy. We are pleased to say that he
has been joined by another experienced blacksmith, Martin so that
we can now open the forge to clients every day that they are
present.
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| Roy, the blacksmith who has
been with us some time |
Martin, our new blacksmith |
Our two Open Days raise nearly £4000
Our first Open Day this year was on 21 July and this raised
around £1800 on the day. We were extremely pleased that two
employees of Barclays Bank chose to support us by raising £750
each from their employees under the Barclays Matched
Fundraising scheme. This gave us a total of £3500 for
that event.
We held another, smaller Open Day on 4 September mainly aimed
at friends and family of Root & Branch. This event
raised a further £450 giving a total for both events of £3950.
Both days were blessed with good weather. You can see
pictures and read about our July Open Day here.
The day for our September Open Day stated wet and dull and
ended even wetter. But during the afternoon, while we were
open, the sun came out making it a wonderful few hours.
Craftwork, plants, raffle tickets and vegetables sold well and
children enjoyed the "hunt the duck" competition. Our
woodwork shop and blacksmiths forge were open for people to see
demonstrations and even participate.
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Gordon, one of our volunteers,
demonstrating wood turning |
We were blessed with beautiful weather for
the few hours we were open |
Root & Branch Becomes a
charitable company
On 1 September 2011, Root & Branch changed its status from
an unincorporated charity to a charitable company. The
objects and activities of the charity remains the same as do the
services provided to users. The background to the change is
given in the next news item below.
As a result of the change, we now have a new charity number
1143294. Our previous charity number was 1088493. When
using the Charity
Commission web site to find out about us, you need to use our
old charity number to check on our financial history prior to
September 2011. If you go to our pages for the new charity number
on the Commission's web site, it is at present rather preliminary,
but information on us will build up over time.
As well as being a registered charity, we are now also a
company limited by guarantee which is registered in England and
Wales with the company No. 07685042.
Root & Branch to become a
charitable company
Like most small charities, Root & Branch has, since
formation, been an unincorporated charity. In such
charities, the trustees take a personal financial responsibility
for the charity.
Up to now, this has been acceptable to the trustees who are
diligent in ensuring that we are financially sound. However,
we have recently entered into a contract to participate in
providing the Oxfordshire Recovery Service
for mental health. This contract is typical of the new style
of contract for NHS services and contains some potentially costly
penalty clauses. It is the view of trustees that the likelihood
of these clauses being invoked to their maximum extent is
small. Nevertheless, the thought that it could happen, would
make it extremely difficult to gain new trustees and indeed retain
some existing trustees. Hence trustees decided to seek
charitable company status.
Trustees therefore called a Special General Meeting (SGM) for
21 July for members to approve that we should change our status
from an Unincorporated Charity to a Charitable company. The
notice of the meeting can be downloaded
as a pdf file (19 kb). Trustees are pleased to announce
that the members present unanimously approved the move (meeting
minutes - pdf file, 10 kb).
The new charitable company will have the same name as the
current unincorporated charity, Root & Branch Westmill.
Note that the, even though we will be a company, we will not have
to put "Ltd." after our name. The charitable
objects of the new charitable company will be the same as the
existing unincorporated charity and so there will be no change to
the service to our users.
We are well on with the process of changing our status and hope
to complete everything in the next couple of months.
Our SGM held in our craft room at Root &
Branch
Open day summer 2011
We were lucky with the weather for our open day held on the
afternoon of Sunday 10 July. It was pleasantly warm and dry
but not too hot. Attendance was excellent and visitors
enjoyed themselves trying activities; buying plants, craftwork and
brick-a-brack or just relaxing in the garden. Children were
not left out because they could participate in the hunt the duck,
connect-four, face painting and other crafts. The highlight
of the day was the raffle draw with prizes including a wonderful
hanging basket, dinner for two at a local hotel restaurant and a
paint ball session.
The day generated around £1800 for which we are very grateful
to all those involved.
The garden was looking at its best thanks to the efforts of
service users, staff and volunteers, plus the help, as usual, from
the Highworth Garden Club that came along to make the final
touches.
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| Composing poems with the help
of visitors |
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Illustrating the text of a poem
with the help of a "volunteer" |
As an innovation this time, we had a "poet bloke",
Tony Hillier who worked with visitors to compose poems that he
then read out to the the assembled crowds, along with other
entertaining poems like "The Owl and the Pussy
Cat". At one stage, he got a little carried away
illustrating the theme of a poem by dancing with one of our
volunteers.
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| Visitor tries her hand at
blacksmithing |
Playing connect 4 |
Relaxing |
A popular activity was trying ones hand at blacksmithing.
Some people preferred games while others just wanted to relax.
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| Music maker |
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Looking for bargains on the
brick-a-brack stall |
Neil entertained us with music throughout the afternoon and
there were some great bargains to be had on the brick-a-abrack
stall including a wide collection of books.
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| The crowds in our garden |
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Finding quiet spot for a cuppa |
Despite the crowds one person found a nice quiet spot for a cup
of tea.
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| Choosing cakes |
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Plants for sale |
We had an excellent collection of home-made cakes for people to
choose between so there was not excuse for any one going home
hungry. As usual, our general craft-work attracted a lot of
interest. The woodwork shop and blacksmiths forge were selling examples of their professional work.
Our collection of home-grown plants were looking at their best and
were snapped up.
So, it was a wonderful day. Do come to our next open day
on 4 September.
PETA (UK) Ltd Gives Root & Branch
Special Trowels
| Root & Branch was pleased to receive a 20 of their
Easi-Grip®
trowels as a donation. PETA
UK are designers, manufacturers and suppliers of
ergonomic tools for people suffering from arthritis or reduced
grip strength. These trowels will be a valuable addition to
our collection of gardening tools. |
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Homebase Distribution Centre in Swindon
donates plants and more
A few of the very many plants donated by Homebase |
We were pleased to receive an array of plants and other
items from the Homebase Distribution Centre at Lydiard Fields in
Swindon. The plants included blueberry, azalea, fruit trees,
ferns, pinks and pelargonium. They also gave us assorted seeds,
bulb baskets, ceramic plant pots and solar glow sticks to enliven
our floral displays. We are extremely grateful for this wonderful
donation which will greatly add to our garden.
Homebase web
site |
Heat Transfer Society holds raffle in aid of
Root & Branch
The Heat
Transfer Society is the leading UK society for people involved
in the heat transfer industry. One of our trustees is an
ex-president of the society and he asked the Society if they would
hold a raffle for us their annual dinner at the end of
March. The Society readily agreed to do so and the raffle
was held at the dinner in the New Connaught Rooms in London
attended by nearly 100 society members and guests.
We are very pleased to announce that the raffle raised £812.
The main prizes were vouchers paid for by a leading UK heat
transfer company, Cal
Gavin. We also provided two large and elegant chopping
boards made in our woodwork shop.
So Root & Branch sincerely thanks the Heat Transfer Society
for holding the raffle, those at the dinner who bought raffle
tickets and Cal Gavin for sponsoring the raffle prizes.
Fiona Clarke our new Recovery
Coordinator
Root & Branch was delighted to find Fiona
Clarke and recruit her as our new Recovery Coordinator to help us
deliver the new Recovery Service for the
Primary Care Trust. Here is what Fiona says about her new
job.
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"Over the past fifteen years I have worked
with people with mental health problems in London. My last
job was as an Operations Manager for a large housing association
overseeing several services in Southwark and Hackney.
Although I really enjoyed this I missed day to day contact with
service users and services. My family and I decided to move
to the country for a better quality of life, and to make it easier
for me to find work locally that involved direct work with service
users. When I saw the advert for the Recovery Coordinator
post at Root & Branch I was amazed to find that it would
involve working with service users as well as gardening. We
had an allotment for five years in London and this had really led
me to become passionate about gardening. A job that involved
both was fantastic to find."
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Fiona Clarke, our new Recovery Coordinator |
New jointly-run recovery service
We are very happy to announce that NHS Oxfordshire and
Oxfordshire County Council has awarded Restore
the contract to run the Recovery Service as part of the ‘Keeping
People Well’ tender for 3 years from 7 March 2011.
| This contract involves Restore working with
Root & Branch and Bridewell
Organic Gardens to provide 570 places for 285 people per
week across Oxfordshire.
Root & Branch will be providing 30 places for 15
people per week.
Services will be provided at seven locations across the
county.
- Elder Stubbs Garden Group (Oxford) - Restore
- The Beehive (Oxford) - Restore
- Fleet Meadow (Didcot) - Restore
- The Garden Café (Oxford) - Restore
- Orchard Way (Banbury) - Restore
- Root & Branch (Watchfield)
- Bridewell Organic Gardens (Wilcote near Witney
The map on the right shows red boxes where the service
centres are located. Three of the Restore centres are
close together in Cowley, Oxford and are shown as one red
box. |
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Race Night - 19 November
| Root & Branch was one of 6 charities that
joined in a FUNdrasing evening at the Swindon
Greyhounds to raise money through ticket sales. Points
were awarded for races 2 to 7, which included the "Root
& Branch Stakes", and we ended up in third
place, narrowly missing out on a trophy. Thanks are
due to all who brought tickets, raising over £100, and who
braved the cold to come along and enjoy the evening.
Most people had a little flutter and some were even lucky
enough to win a few pounds! |
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Autumn Walk - 31 October
On a slightly cold and damp Sunday morning 12 of us gathered at
Coleshill to walk the three miles to Root & Branch and
back. Expertly led by Phil Chesterton who brought the
history and countryside alive with tales and nuggets of
information along the route. We enjoyed some fantastic views
and met a little wildlife on the way.
| When we arrived at Root & Branch there was
a warm welcome of a hot drink and a slice (or two!) of
homemade cake. With full bellies we made the return
journey to Coleshill and arrived just in time before the
rain came.
The walk raised nearly £50 for Root & Branch.
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Wine tasting fundraising event - 7
October
To help you through the maze of white, pink and red wines, the
wine tasting event at Magnum Wine Shop was the place to
be! The first ever Supporters of Root & Branch
evening was organised by volunteer Nicola Fordham who
certainly has set a high standard to follow.
Thirty wine tasters, from complete novices to
connoisseurs, were introduced to an array of wines. We
tasted wines from Ventiquero Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
from Chile through to Alamos Torrontes 2009 Mendoza from
Argentina. This was a truly magnificent introduction to
South American wines with descriptions and background knowledge
all provided by Magnums. We were also treated to
canapés and cheeses all selected by Nicola.
Our thanks go to Magnums, Nicola and everyone who supported us
on the night, either in person or through donations - whether
monetary or gifts for the raffle. We made £325 - a great
start!
For older news items, click here.
Archive of our news letters
You can download our old newsletters as pdf files by clicking
on the links below.
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Archive or annual reports/reviews
You can download a pdf file of an annual report/review by
clicking on the link below.
Note that the later reports are called "Annual
Reviews" because they do not contain the detailed
accounts. However, our latest accounts for each
year can be be found on the Charity
Commission web site.
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PDF means portable document format. You will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader to read pdf files. You can download this free
here.
Email us if you
want to go on our email distribution list. We will send you
future newsletters when they come out and send you notices of
events.
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